There are countless books on leadership that are in print and new ones keep coming out every year because people are always looking for insights about excellent leadership. These books are fine, but to learn about leadership, there is no better way to do this than read books about candidates running for the President of the United States. The presidential campaign ultimately is about demonstrating leadership to the American people through a grueling campaign while people judge the candidates whether they have what it takes to be the President. In this blog I will look at one important skill that CEOs in business can learn from President John F. Kennedy's 1960 campaign as a case study of outstanding leadership quality: Hire good people and then trust their judgment to get the job done. A presidential candidate has to posses many skills for leadership, but one of the most important skill he must possess is to hire good people who can get the job done. If a candidate can't sell his vision and assemble an excellent team then he is unlikely to succeed; a leader must know how to hire good people. According to Colin Powell, former Secretary of State of United States, he looks for the following qualities in hiring: Intelligence and judgement, capacity to anticipate, loyalty, integrity, high energy drive and ability to get things done [1]. Hiring is also so critical in business that Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, once said that he'd rather interview fifty people and not hire anyone than hire the wrong person [2].A good example of hiring and then trusting the judgment of those reporting to a leader comes from one particular incident during the Kennedy campaign that many political analyst believe was the turning point in the campaign and offers a good lesson to CEOs. During any arduous endeavor, at some point (typically early on) a key decision has to be made that will either result in a win or a loss. The Kennedy campaign faced this situation in the Democratic primary contest in West Virginia [3].ProblemThe Kennedy team was confident of an easy win based on early polling in West Virginia where Kennedy was beating Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota by a comfortable margin of 70 to 30 in the largest county (Kanawha county) of West Virginia. But this turned upside down three weeks before the West Virginia primary as Humphrey was now winning with the margin of 60 to 40. When the Kennedy headquarters inquired, from their the West Virginia advisers explained that the reason for the turnaround was that people now know that Kennedy is Catholic in a state where 95% of the population is Protestant and only 5% Catholic.SolutionKennedy Team, led by Lawrence O’Brien, Director of John F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign and future NBA commissioner, and Robert F. Kennedy, campaign manager, quickly organized a small staff and volunteers on the ground in West Virginia. They developed a plan to cover the state by reaching out to all the local political leaders to get a sense of where their candidate stood and get the pulse of people’s mood on the ground. When they discovered that the religion issue was hurting John F. Kennedy’s prospect of winning in West Virginia, they determined that this is something Kennedy needed to address directly. To put this issue behind them, they developed a strategy where Kennedy would address this issue once and do it in a form of a sit down interview with Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr. In the interview, Kennedy explained that, if elected President, he would be taking an oath to the Constitution by placing his hand on the Bible. If he broke the oath, he would not only face impeachment, but it would be a sin against God. To keep the message simple for the voters, Kennedy pitched the whole religion issue as a choice between tolerance versus intolerance. By voting for him they would be voting for tolerance and by not voting for him, they would be voting for intolerance.

OutcomeThe strategy worked and Kennedy won the West Virginia primary and went on to easily win the most of the remaining primaries and secured the Democratic nomination at the Democratic convention in Los Angeles. The lesson CEOs can take away from Kennedy’s example is to hire well and then get out of their way and let them do their jobs. Kennedy let O’Brien run the campaign operation in West Virginia, since, being on the ground and working with local advisers, he had the best information on what should be done. O’Brien only involved Kennedy when there was no one besides the candidate who could neutralize the thorny religion issue. The Kennedy team did not become unsettled and have the candidate fly all over the state to address the religion issue to persuade people. That strategy. during the primary, would have made Kennedy campaign appear rattled by the religion controversy and also make Kennedy not look presidential. It probably would have hurt the Kennedy brand of being calm and under control. In addition, the media would have focused on their being panicked by the religion issue which would have hurt their image.Kennedy team decided to address the religion issue once, do it well and do it with maximum publicity. Kennedy did exactly as his team suggested and removed a potential obstacle that could have easily derailed his campaign early. With the right strategy driven from the ground by a competent operator, he did not have to worry about securing sufficient delegates to avoid a floor fight for the Democratic nomination. He had Lawrence O’Brien on his team whose judgment he trusted and won.This example clearly demonstrates how a leader can succeed by leveraging the insight and talent of people working for him. This is very important in business today, since, according to Gallup, only 30% of the employees are committed to their job [4]. Leaders' success depends on people "buying" his leadership. When people buy, according to INSEAD business school professors Chan and Maulborgne, "They're inspired to excel and act with commitment. [5]" CEO has to not only hire good people but trust their judgment and avoid micromanaging them that render them ineffective. A hallmark of a good organization is where companies hire well and then trust those they hire to do a great job [6]. This means, as Kennedy case study showed, a CEO should only get involved when he is absolutely the only one who can solve a particular problem. Harry Truman once said of the Presidency that “the buck stops here.” Similarly, a company's problems stop on CEO’s desk. If a CEO wants to be be a good leader he should learn from excellent examples in the political arena on how to hire smart people and then trust their judgment and listen to their advice to make the best informed decision. A leader is measured on how well he solves intractable problems, but as we all know he can't solve them on his own. If he is humble and listens to his outstanding employees he has hired, then not only will he solve more difficult problems quickly, but come up with creative solution using the brainpower of his employees. Fernandez-Araoz in his book quotes a top executive that "A great team is key to success." This is true in politics, business and in any field where you depend on people for success.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------References[1] Harari, Oren. "The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell." McGraw Hill. New York, 2002, Book, Pages 125 - 140[2] Fernandez-Araoz. "It's Not the How or What but the Who." Harvard Business Review Press. Boston, MA, 2014. Kindle ebook. Loc 136.[3] White, Theodore, H. "The Making of the President 1960." Harper Perennial Political Classics. New York, 2009, Book, Pages 99 - 114.[4] "State of the American Workplace." Gallup, 2013, Report. Web[5] Kim Chan W,, Renee Mauborgne. "Blue Ocean Leadership." Harvard Business Review. May 2014.[6] Gigerenzer, Gig. “Risk Savvy: How to Make Good Decisions.” Penguin Group. New York, NY, 2014. Book, Pages 115-117.

Disclaimer: This blog was originally used as an essay in the Coursera MOOC course "English Composition I: Achieving Expertise" by Professor Denise Comer of Duke University. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jay Oza is the founder and business development consultant at 5ToolGroup, a company that specializes in helping startups and small companies bring innovation to market within 90 days through our unique 5Tool Methodology that integrates sales, marketing, partnerships, customer development and agile/lean methodology to enable frugal or ("Jugaad") innovation with a strong business focus. We believe that to thrive today, you have to constantly be looking for ways to do lot more with lot less. This has proven to be the only insurance for success today. You can reach me at jay@5toolgroup.com.